


Everywhere There's Trouble

by ishie



Category: Big Bang Theory
Genre: 100-1000 Words, 2010, Alternate Universe, Angst, Community: help_haiti, F/M, One Shot, request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-30
Updated: 2010-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-06 21:06:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/57754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishie/pseuds/ishie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Penny stood in the parking lot of a deserted roadside bar somewhere in the middle of Nowheresville, Arizona, and watched as streaks of fire fell from the sky to the west.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everywhere There's Trouble

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sa_4_geeks](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=sa_4_geeks).



> Written for sa_4_geeks for her donation to help_haiti! Her prompt was the "aliens made them do it" trope, and I really hope you weren't expecting lolzy sexytimes bb. Title is from _Driftwood_ by Travis; angst tag is not just for show.

The world ended on a Tuesday.

Well, it was a kind of an ending, anyway.

The sun was shining, not a cloud in the sky - a beautiful golden day like in the movies. Penny stood in the parking lot of a deserted roadside bar somewhere in the middle of Nowheresville, Arizona, and watched as streaks of fire fell from the sky to the west.

"Is that it?"

Sheldon blinked at her over the map spread across the hood of the truck Penny had hotwired. There was a streak of dirt along one cheekbone, and his hair stuck up in a ridge where he'd had his head jammed against the window as he slept.

"Were you expecting something else?"

She crossed her arms against a sudden chill. "I don't know. I guess maybe I thought it was going to be like _Independence Day_."

Sheldon snorted.

\---

They were skirting Denver in yet another borrowed vehicle when she got her first glimpse of what had fallen from the sky. The sun was sinking down behind the pines stretching along the side of the road, soft golden light bathing the inside of the car. Sheldon twisted in his seat to pull a fresh bottle of water from the cooler in the backseat.

Penny didn't notice anything was wrong until he caught her shoulder in a painful grip and told her to pull onto the shoulder. In the rear-view mirror, she saw a flash of light behind them, then a shadow passed over the car as she cut the engine. She spread her hands on the steering wheel and leaned forward, gaping up through the windshield at the ship gliding far overhead.

Sheldon's eyes were wide, the whites all but glowing in the twilight.

"Do you think they saw us?" she asked, already knowing the answer but asking it anyway.

"No, I'm sure the stealthy tactic of turning off the car fooled whatever advanced scanning equipment they've no doubt developed."

That startled a laugh out of her, even as terrified as she was. It had to be the end of the world if Sheldon was using sarcasm.

\---

It turned out that getting captured wasn't as much of a nightmare as she thought it would be. Penny wasn't going to tell anybody - if there was even anybody left to tell - but it was almost a relief to finally be able to give up.

\---

Penny lost all track of time in her cell. It was small and grey and featureless, the walls and floor and ceiling made of the same spongy material that gave under her like a foam mattress. Sometimes she sat and stared at where the door had been once upon a time. Sometimes she curled in a ball and pretended she was home again, waiting for her alarm. Sometimes she floated from one side to the other, bumping gently against floor and ceiling and walls.

After a long while, or maybe a short one, the wall ballooned inward and stretched out of place and then Sheldon was kneeling on the foam just a few feet away.

He blinked. "Oh, that's handy," he said. His voice was rough and harsh like he hadn't used it in a very long time.

It took three tries before Penny was able to clear her own throat enough to ask, "What is?"

"Your hair."

Penny pulled her overgrown bangs down in front of her face. Her eyes crossed as she tried to figure out what he meant.

"Your roots have grown at least another one and a half inches. Assuming the anagen phase hasn't been substantially affected by the conditions here, that means we've been in captivity for approximately ten weeks."

She let the hair drop. "Fabulous."

"Not really."

\---

They didn't agree to take turns sleeping - there was no point. Nothing came into their cell. She hadn't seen a single thing other than Sheldon since they'd been separated. It was like they'd been forgotten. Penny asked why they weren't being fed, and why it didn't seem to matter that she hadn't eaten or had anything to drink in weeks.

Sheldon didn't have an answer.

He fell asleep before she did. She watched him lying on his side with his back to the gentle rise where the floor flowed up into a wall. His hair was shaggy, curling under at his neck. He whimpered slightly and she closed her eyes and rolled to face the other way.

\---

Sheldon turned to her what could have been an eternity later. "I don't know why they're keeping us here," he said, his eyes and mouth soft with resignation and need.

Penny wrapped her arms around him. The terror and confusion had long ago given way to a numbness that hadn't lifted even when Sheldon reappeared. She was hollowed out, the most important parts of her still sitting on the side of a winding road through the darkness.

No, she thought, only a tiny part of her was there. The rest waited in Pasadena, entire lifetimes in the past.

Later, it all seemed like a dream, letting herself pretend that Sheldon was enough to fill the hollow space inside her. Maybe he was, or maybe he wasn't, but the sweat was still cooling on her naked skin when the wall bulged again. It swelled around him until he was covered in gray foam stretched tight, his hands tenting it but not piercing through as he reached out for her.

The wall smoothed out again in an instant, and Penny stopped pretending.

**Author's Note:**

> Started: 28 January 2010  
> Finished: 30 January 2010


End file.
